The Brooklyn Nets entered Tuesday night’s tilt with the Knicks as one of the worst rebounding outfits in the league.
It’s hard to believe the squad is rankedNo. 23on the glass, considering they sport a starting lineup that includes a pair of big men, Brook Lopez and Kevin Garnett (both towering around 7-feet tall) — not to mention 6-foot-7, 245-pound Joe Johnson, who is as strong and physical as they come. But the Knicks (4-15) proved to be the perfect tonic for a Nets team that needed to flex some muscle and start to mold itself in the reflective image of their rugged and defensive-minded head coach Lionel Hollins. “I thought we played a lot better [and with] a lot more aggression,” Garnett said after grabbing 13 rebounds in the victory. “Coach has been stressing rebounding and playing tougher. It’s been one of the things that obviously we’ve been working on [and] been making an emphasis for the bigs to rebound better … tonight I just did.” Brooklyn out-rebounded theKnicks, 49-40, and grabbed a season-high 21 offensive boards while Lopez and Johnson each added eight rebounds apiece.
It’s the exact same lineup that was out-boarded,50-34, by the Chicago Bulls Sunday.
“Coach has been on us about that [crashing the boards], both ends of the floor [and] playing tougher,” Johnson said. “He tells us when we crash the glass and get second-chance points it’ll always help us out. We need to start making it tough [for opponents] and makethem make tough decisions … Tonight, we did a great job at that.” Nets’ fans can only hope this is the start of a new attitude.
Nets notes:
When the Nets crash the Nets, good things happen
Getty Images
